[GreenKeys] Painting

[jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu]

When you say "original Teletype black" you probably mean black wrinkle.
There was an earlier glossy black finish from the Model 12 days when
typewriters and adding machines and other office equipment was painted
glossy black.

I've heard you can get black wrinkle in spray cans at Harley-Davidson
shops, but the price is awfully high.  Maybe some automotive places have 
it.  If the original paint is not peeling and is not too scuffed up you
can just spray with semi-gloss black paint as someone has suggested.

For the gray-green, I've found Rust Oleum spruce green at Wal-Mart.  But
it looks too green to me.  I took a clean sample of gray-green painted
metal to a local paint shop and they computer matched it in a semi-gloss
oil enamel.  They suggested I put it on with a sponge roller, which I did
and to me it looks fine.  That is painting over an existing wrinkle finish
that is dirty and faded and a bit scuffed.

Many years ago I went to a Sherwin-Williams dealer in industrial paints 
and they had a color sample book and I picked one by eye that looked 
pretty close to what I thought a Teletype finish should be.  I have the
formula somewhere but can't find it right now.  It was a gallon of 
Kem-Lustrall green with some gray added and also some "multi-purpose 
flatting base"  This flatting base is what you put in to adjust the 
glossiness.  

This paint was supposed to be smooth and sprayed on.  I never tried 
applying with a brush or roller.  I got the cheapest spray paint outfit
that Sears had, which uses a diaphragm compressor.  Spraying with this the
paint came out in globs and made a nice texture without even trying.
However it is far less durable than the real textured vinyls that replaced
the wrinkle finishes at Teletype.

I suppose if I went to a Sherwin-Williams dealer today they wouldn't 
bother with the color samples and would just computer match to a sample
I would bring in.